This collection of poems by Duncan Mercredi provides an insightful glimpse into the perspective of a Cree and Métis storyteller and story maker. Mercredi shares that he was chosen at a young age to be the family story carrier, as he was responsible for holding the community and family history as well as traditional Métis stories like those of the Roogaroo. This responsibility shaped his narrative style and influenced the content of his poetry. The poems found in mahikan ka onot can be used as a collection or in isolation to discuss life on the land, cultural resurgence, the injustices of colonialism, the ongoing strength of community, and contemporary Indigenous life. The foreword by Warren Cariou (Métis) provides an in-depth analysis of the overarching themes and content, and the afterword by Mercredi includes discussion points for further reflection. Includes Cree language with written translations.

Caution: Mature content.

102 pp., 6 × 9"

Duncan Mercredi (Cree/Métis)

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools (2021-2022)

Duncan Mercredi was born in Misipawistik (Grand Rapids) Manitoba to a Métis father and Cree mother. He resided there until the age of sixteen until he left to attend high school in Cranberry Portage. After graduating, he entered the blue-collar working world. Mercredi is now retired and living in Winnipeg.

Duncan Mercredi's profile page

Warren Cariou was born in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, into a family of mixed Métis and European heritage. He has written many articles about Canadian Aboriginal literature, especially on Métis culture and storytelling, and he has published two books: a collection of novellas, The Exalted Company of Roadside Martyrs (1999) and a memoir/cultural history, Lake of the Prairies: A Story of Belonging (2002). He has also co-directed and co-produced two films about Aboriginal people in western Canada’s oil sands region: Overburden and Land of Oil and Water. Cariou has won and been nominated for numerous awards. His most acclaimed work to date, Lake of the Prairies, won the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize in 2002 and was shortlisted for the Charles Taylor Prize for literary nonfiction in 2004. His films have screened at many national and international film festivals, including Hot Docs, ImagineNative, and the San Francisco American Indian Film Festival. Cariou has also served as editor for several books, including an anthology of Aboriginal literature, W’daub Awae: Speaking True (2010), and he is the fiction co-editor of Prairie Fire. Cariou is a Canada Research Chair in Narrative, Community and Indigenous Cultures at the University of Manitoba, where he also directs the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

Warren Cariou's profile page